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A review by eggata
A Dark and Hollow Star by Ashley Shuttleworth
adventurous
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
I would like to start by saying I am very grateful to NetGalley for letting me read an eARC of this book! It is now one of my favourite books.
<i>A Dark and Hollow Star</i> is a multiPOV queer adult fantasy. It follows 5 characters (half human-half fae Arlo, immortal former fury Nausicaa, sidhe fae Vehan, lesdihe fae Aurelian and Hero, a mysterious janitor) who are all caught up in the mystery surrounding a string of murders.
I loved the characters. The danger with writing a multi-POV book is that they voices can easily blend into one, but the author does a very good job of giving each character a distinct voice. The author has created amazingly real characters, that are all complex, with their own stories that make their actions believable. The relationships between them are also excellently written- the angst, the pining, the mistrust and the growth?? Exquisite. The pop culture references in this book were nice too, making the character more real, but it'll be funny to see how they age...
Plot-wise, this book was interesting. I really enjoyed the premise of it, and I particularly liked how the author utilised structure to deepen the mystery. Personally, I loved seeing the POV of <i>the other side</i> and though it was done very, very well. The plot did take a long time to truly begin, but I honestly didn't mind as I was grateful for the long introduction to this new world, which was quite confusing at the start. I appreciate that some may despise info-dumps, but I actually appreciated the way this book was written. There were one or two minor plot points that I felt were ignored when they weren't convenient, but since this will be a series, I'm hoping these will be addressed!
Another thing I think deserves recognition is the diversity. All of the 4 protagonists are queer which I absolutely love. I also appreciate that it's explicitly written into the book, rather than being an afterthought. I'm also so grateful for the genderqueer rep (including neopronoun rep how exciting!) written by a person who actually gets it. It really goes to show that representation can be written into a book without being a plot point and I know this will mean so much to people.
I was a little disappointed in the lack of people of colour who played major roles (I believe all main characters are white?) especially as there are references to racism. I am hoping we see more of this in the next books though!
The world-building of this world is something I would definitely want to have more detail on, as we only get snippets of information, (perhaps in a spinoff history style book...) but what was given was enough to understand the story!
Overall, I enjoyed this book so much, even with my criticisms! I also massively appreciate the content warnings, they are definitely something to be normalised. 2022 can't come fast enough...
<i>A Dark and Hollow Star</i> is a multiPOV queer adult fantasy. It follows 5 characters (half human-half fae Arlo, immortal former fury Nausicaa, sidhe fae Vehan, lesdihe fae Aurelian and Hero, a mysterious janitor) who are all caught up in the mystery surrounding a string of murders.
I loved the characters. The danger with writing a multi-POV book is that they voices can easily blend into one, but the author does a very good job of giving each character a distinct voice. The author has created amazingly real characters, that are all complex, with their own stories that make their actions believable. The relationships between them are also excellently written- the angst, the pining, the mistrust and the growth?? Exquisite. The pop culture references in this book were nice too, making the character more real, but it'll be funny to see how they age...
Plot-wise, this book was interesting. I really enjoyed the premise of it, and I particularly liked how the author utilised structure to deepen the mystery. Personally, I loved seeing the POV of <i>the other side</i> and though it was done very, very well. The plot did take a long time to truly begin, but I honestly didn't mind as I was grateful for the long introduction to this new world, which was quite confusing at the start. I appreciate that some may despise info-dumps, but I actually appreciated the way this book was written. There were one or two minor plot points that I felt were ignored when they weren't convenient, but since this will be a series, I'm hoping these will be addressed!
Another thing I think deserves recognition is the diversity. All of the 4 protagonists are queer which I absolutely love. I also appreciate that it's explicitly written into the book, rather than being an afterthought. I'm also so grateful for the genderqueer rep (including neopronoun rep how exciting!) written by a person who actually gets it. It really goes to show that representation can be written into a book without being a plot point and I know this will mean so much to people.
I was a little disappointed in the lack of people of colour who played major roles (I believe all main characters are white?) especially as there are references to racism. I am hoping we see more of this in the next books though!
The world-building of this world is something I would definitely want to have more detail on, as we only get snippets of information, (perhaps in a spinoff history style book...) but what was given was enough to understand the story!
Overall, I enjoyed this book so much, even with my criticisms! I also massively appreciate the content warnings, they are definitely something to be normalised. 2022 can't come fast enough...